Pumpkin Roll

November 14, 2011

My Nana was an amazing baker and was always up for involving me in her kitchen. She’d perch me atop a bar stool and side by side, I’d take in her talent and mimic her techniques the best that I could. Despite my young age she undoubtedly had a tremendous amount of confidence in me. She never questioned my ability to use a knife or remove baked goods from a piping hot oven. I was her sous chef and during our bake-a-thons, I was treated like an adult – not a 7 year old kid with a permed mullet and retainer.

There is no question that I inherited my whirlwind styling of baking from her. We would tear up her kitchen and dig our way out hours later. But she also instilled a fearlessness with food that I will forever be grateful for. How many second graders do you know that can whip out a perfect pumpkin roll with little to no guidance?

As far back as I can remember, Thanksgiving was pretty much synonymous with Pumpkin Rolls. We would set aside a weekend and systematically crank out about 30 Pumpkin Rolls that Nana would give away as holiday gifts to friends, family and fellow church members.

To this day, those Pumpkin Roll filled days are some of my fondest childhood memories. Nana often baked and cooked from memory, so I don’t have her exact Pumpkin Roll recipe, but I do remember her “doctoring up” the Libby’s recipe with secret ingredients, which I am pretty certain was pumpkin pie spice, so that’s pretty much what I’ve done for years with delicious results.

I hope you’ll join Katie and I in this week’s holiday recipe exchange sponsored by Chicago Metallic. We can’t wait to browse through your holiday baked goods! Be sure to head over to Good Life Eats and check out Katie’s recipe for Mini Cranberry-Walnut Tarts.

Notes:

Store prepared Pumpkin Roll in refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also wrap tightly in a layer of plastic wrap and then foil and store in freezer for up to one month. Remove frozen Pumpkin Roll to room temperature one hour before serving.

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131 comments

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I have some extra pumpkin puree and now I know what I can do with it! Your roll looks gorgeous! I’ve only made a jelly roll once before and it didn’t look anywhere as nice as your’s :) My jelly roll pan is an 11×17, do you think the recipe would work just as well?

WOW! This reminds me of a jellyroll but 100% better! Love this recipe!

Thanks to Chicago Metallic for the set and the contest.

Chess pie has always been a favorite of mine, the first time I made it when I first got married my new husband had the first of many reservations for my childhood food loves. He was a convert at the first bite.

Preheat oven to 450ºF, position the oven rack in the upper center of the oven.

Place pie crust on a cookie sheet, . bake for approximately 8-10 minutes, until the surface appears slightly puffed and dry (like a shortbread cookie!). Remove from the oven and reduce oven temperature to 325º.

Bake the pie:

Gently whisk the filling to recombine the ingredients. Pour filling into the hot pie crust, return to the 325ºF oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. The center should only jiggle slightly and the top should appear light brown when done (it will firm up as it cools).

Immediately sprinkle with the remaining 1 teaspoon sugar. Cool on a wire rack for about 4 hours. Refrigerate leftover pie.

Oh my goodness! Those prizes are the best essentials!

Love pumpkin rolls! The only part I don’t like is that it needs refrigerated. I made it once as part of a gift and realized later they needed to stay cold due to the filling. But the ingredients are so easy and most on hand!

This couldn’t have been easier. I am running the Turkey Trot so I need all theime I can get Thanksgiving morning. This fit the bill as it can be frozen or in theridge for a few days! You post with helpful hints came in handy. Only one problem… (go-ahead, I’m including this for laughs) I didn’t relaize the towel I chose was longer than the cake, and I foolishly put the cake in the center. I had to cut the towel so I could roll it up. DUH! I also wrapped the thing close to death juuuust in case, and its in teh freezer now. Ah…beginner bakers!

Here is my holiday recipe, another quickie from the Silver Palate Cookbook:

Ellen’s Apple Tart

Poach 4 med to large apples (peeled,cored and halved) in simple syrup, removiong when slightly firm. Remove and strain, let them cool.
Pour 3/4 cups sugar and 3 Tbs water into 10 in oven safe pan, set over medium heat and cook until syrup turns golden. Remove from heat and let harden.
Place one apple half, round side down in center of carmelized sugar. Surround it with rest of apples. Slice last half into 6 slices and rest in between the apple halves.
Melt 2 Tbs butter. Whisk in 1 tbs lemon juice, 1 tsp nutmeg and 2 Tbs. Calvados. Drizzle over tart.
Preheat oven to 425. Roll out puff pastry to 1/4 inch thickness, count 12 in round. Place over apples.
Bake until pastry is deep golden and syrup is bubbling (30 – 35 min)
Remove from oven, let sit 15 minutes. Invert onto serving platter.

Oh I love holiday baking! Can’t wait to check out all these great recipes. It’s been so fun to participate in the recipe swap!

this is beautiful! i made pumpkin rolls the other day to freeze for thanksgiving, but they don’t look as gorgeous as yours – they look like oval lumps of cake and filling! how do you get a pumpkin roll to look so perfect?! are there tricks to these? :)

You are amazing!

Okay, fingers crossed. It is cooling in the towel right now and so far so good! I’m so nervous!

Made this for Thanksgiving. Surprisingly easy and absolutely delicious! I got compliments on it’s clean flavor. I personally love cream cheese frosting, on anything so this is definitely a keeper. I was thinking about trying a chocolate cake base with peppermint cream cheese frosting for christmas :)

Love this post! I too cooked with my Granny. She was famous for her homemade bread. She was a master at handling the dough. Before she got her mixmaster she would had the flour at the end with her hands, not a bit would stick to them. I thought I had watched her closely enough, but when I tried to add in my flour with my hands, I could not get away from the sticky mess! I literally had dough gloves! It just made me that much more appreciative of her skill. When I asked her what she did differently, she replied, ” you have to have a light touch.” I made sure the next time she made bread, I really paid attention to her light touch! Thank you for sharing your story, it brought back very fond memories for me!

I have been making pumpkin rolls for years, but I add chopped walnuts to the top of the batter before you bake it. The nuts then end up on the outside of the roll, delicious. I double the recipe and make two at a time, and I have non-stick jelly roll pans that I only use for this recipe, my kids have been warned never to use them if they want another pumpkin roll!!

I would love to make this for Thanksgiving this year, but we will be driving 4 hours to my family’s house.. Any idea on how to safely transport this? Or should I just save this for a Thanksgiving at home…

Jessica-
Pumpkin Roll freezes beautifully. Wrap in plastic wrap, then foil and freeze. You could transport it in a small cooler with ice – I’ve done this numerous time because it’s a Thanksgiving must have! Thanks for stopping by! :)
-Jamie

I just attempted to do this, and there are a couple things worth noting. I wanted to double the recipe for a big party, but I don’t have a jelly roll pan, so I poured the double batch into a regular cookie dish. After baking, I realized it would be quite thick, which ended up making rolling it difficult. Also, the filling should be chilled before spreading onto the cake, especially since the cake was still hot in the middle, though cool on the outside. It was way to runny and just spilled out the sides when I tried to roll it up. I tried several times, which caused the cake to start cracking. By the time I got it all rolled up, it was cracked, most of the filling spilled out on the saran wrap. But I managed to get it wrapped up and put in the freezer (will be eating next weekend). So we’ll see how it turns out! Seems delicious, though, so I’m sure we’ll eat it even if it looks terrible!

Amanda-
Yes, the cake will definitely be less pliable if the recipe was doubled. You always want to make sure that the cake is completely cooled before attempting to spread the filling. I hope it still tastes delicious.
-Jamie

Teevi-
I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving your feedback – have a great day!
-Jamie

Made this today. We love it!!! My only question is that i cooled it for 1 1/2 hours before filling. Maybe was still tiny bit warm. And wrapped in plastic to refrigerate. When i removed the plastic wrap some hours later, the cake was almost wet. Could that be because wasn’t 100% cooled before refrigerating? Or some other reason? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated since i will definitely be making this again.

Neera-
I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe. The cake will definitely have a wet texture if placed in the plastic wrap too early. It’s best to wait at least two hours or until it feels 100% cool. Thanks for visiting and providing your feedback- have a great day!
-Jamie

This site has a lot of different rolls you can make

Loved your story about baking with your grandmother – I have some similar memories!
Your pumpkin roll recipe sounds great – I tried one for the first time this year, taken from a recipe I found at our local supermarket, and i thought you might be interested in the enhanced filling ingredients, which I found very tasty!
In addition to the regular cream cheese filling, this recipe added chopped dried cranberries and chopped nuts. I thought the tartness of the dried cranberries made a nice contrast with the sweetness of the pumpkin roll! And nuts improve almost everything in my opinion!

I have never baked a jelly roll before, but I thought I’d try this one in time for the holidays. And it did not disappoint! I am shocked at how well it turned out because I had nooo idea what I was doing (I had to look up what a jelly roll pan was). So excited to take this to parties and share your recipe with my friends!

Shawnee-
I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for stopping by and providing your feedback – have a great day!
-Jamie

This cake roll is absolutely gorgeous, and I love the story about your nana! My grandmother was always in the kitchen baking, and I have no doubt that my love for cooking and baking has a lot to do with my memories of her. I wanted to let you know that I featured this on my blog’s Weekend Wrap-Up, where I share some of my favorite ideas and recipes from the past week. Thank you for such a wonderful post, and I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Beth-

You’re so welcome! I’m thrilled that you enjoyed the recipe so much. Have a fantastic day and thank you for following MBA!

-Jamie

I just tried this for the first time and it was DELICIOUS!!! This is by far my new favourite fall dessert. Very easy to make and huge pay off!! I did not have a jelly roll pan so I used a 15″ by 11″ rectangular casserole dish and it turned out fine. Will definitely be making this again!!

Christine-

Thank you so much for stopping in to share! Have a fantastic day and thank you for following MBA!

-Jamie

I love making jelly rolls or cake rolls. I think they travel well and look spectacular when sliced and served. They are also lovely for a baked gift to give at the holidays. A quick tip: I use paper towels to roll up my cake. I pull off about 2-3 rectangles of paper towels…..but do not separate them at the seams. I lay them on the counter and then is sprinkle them with confectionary sugar and I use my fingertips to spread it evenly over the towels. Then, I invert my hot, cooked cake right on top of the sugared paper towels. I use the towels to help me roll up the cake. I let the cake cool rolled up with the toweling. When I unroll it, the sugar keeps the cake from sticking to the toweling…and the towels help to absorb any extra moisture that comes from the cake being hot initially. I unroll the cooled cake…fill it with either jelly or whatever other filling I want….and roll it back up. The powdered sugar looks nice as a light ‘frost’ to the outside of the cake. This idea works every time for me…..and I don’t have to worry about having a clean enough towel–or if some fibers from the towel might stick to the cake. The paper towels are disposable and do a great job. Have a blessed holiday!

Pat-

Thank you so much for the tips! Have a lovely day!

-Jamie

Pat do you think you can write me back would like lo get a recipe for the jelly roll that it is not so thin I dont like pumpkin read you make all kinds thank you barely read your comment today nov.10 2017

Marylynn-

That’s great to hear! I’m so happy that the recipe was a success! Happy Holidays and thanks for following MBA!

-Jamie

This is almost the exact recipe Iv been making since the early 80s. I found the recipe in the magazine Family Circle and Iv been making it for holidays ever since. Only thing different is I put walnuts on top of the cake before I bake it. The nuts gives it more flavor. My family and friends love it!!!!

Mix until stiff.
Pour on top of 1st layer.

3rd LAYER:
2 cups Cool Whip
½ cup chopped pecans

Spread Cool Whip on top of the pudding layer.
Sprinkle chopped pecans over the Cool Whip.

ive never used a towel or powdered sugar when rolling. I lay regular wax paper on cookie sheet with a small amount hanging over pan at ends and spray with non stick spray. Once you spread batter, bake and remove from oven, I simply roll up with paper inside the roll. It looks like the wax paper is a small layer of filling. Place on wire cooling rack. Once cooled, I unroll, spread filling and re roll WITHOUT paper. It peels easily away once you start rolling. I sprinkle sifted powdered sugar over roll before serving (just a light dusting).

Kelly-
Thanks for the tips. I appreciate you stopping by.

-Jamie

Hi, I too have been making pumpkin rolls for years…I use the Libby recipe. My pumpkin rolls usually turn out really nice, but as they sit in the refrigerator wrapped in plastic wrap, they get sticky on the outside and actually a little gummy and they don’t have that light airy texture they had when I first made them. I always make sure to cool them several hours in the refrigerator, wrapped in tea towels too, before putting the filling in and rerolling them…so I just can’t figure out how to remedy this problem. Thanks so much in advance for your help :)

Laura, it sounds like they’re not completely cool before you wrap them in plastic wrap. Condensation is what will make them gummy. I would suggest putting them in the freezer, in a tea towel, without plastic wrap, to cool.

– Jamie

I made this last night! The pumpkin portion was SPOT ON! It was soooooo delicous! Unfortunately I didn’t let my butter come to room temperature all the way and when I made the frosting had lumps of cold butter stuck in it :( boo! I didn’t notice this until today when I went to serve it and tasted one myself by butting into a big butter clump :( going to try again with the frosting tomorrow and see how it works! I’ve heard of other frosting recipes for cream cheese that only use 3 tablespoons also. Your nana makes a fine roll I just can’t seem to get her frosting down!! Thanks again!

I am getting ready to try this recipe, but I have a 15.25 x 10.25 pan. Would this work just as well? Thank you.

Paula-
I believe your pan will work just fine. Thanks for stopping by.

-Jamie

For Thanksgiving, I made two pumpkin rolls: 1 was this recipe; the second was from another site that hundreds of people had rated 4.7 out of 5. My family did a taste test and unanimously agreed that while both recipes were excellent, your pumpkin roll recipe on My Baking Addiction was clearly superior. Thanks for sharing a recipe I’m sure my family will enjoy for generations!

Thanks so much, Nikki! I am so glad to hear you and your family enjoyed the recipe. I actually ate pumpkin roll for breakfast today – no shame in my game! Wishing you a happy holiday season from my kitchen to yours!
-Jamie

These are DELICIOUS. The only pumpkin flavored thing I like <33

I’m so happy to hear that, Catia!

Made pumpkin rolls the tops come out sticky why

Hi, Mary. Do you live in a humid climate? There’s a chance the tops are sticky because of extra moisture in the air. Make sure the cake is baked and cooled completely to avoid the sticky top. I hope this helps!

Mine came out also too sticky and wet. Will let cool longer next time. However, is there anything I can do with the wet, sticky ones already made to make them less wet. Thanks

Hi, Jan! How did the pumpkin roll taste? If you enjoyed the flavor, I would probably still serve it. I hope this helps!

Hi I love THE look of this but I live in the Netherlands and can’t get Canned pumpkin pureé. Is there a recipe to make iT from fresh?
Sounds A bit stupid I know but what I mean is which type of pumpkin and how long /which methode to Cook it and do I add spice ie sugar/salt? Thanks in advance, Carole

Carole-
You can sub in homemade pumpkin puree, there are tons of recipes online for making your own. I hope this helps!
-Jamie

Hi. Has anyone ever made this recipe using gluten free flour? I wondered if it would turn out.

i have never made pumpkin bread and did make for 1sy. time before reading your information. i did not have good results. it split opinion top and filling was visible on the splits at top of roll, not making for a good appearance. i will try again today, following yours exactly. i think i may have overbooked just a little and i read that can cause cracking. so i will give it another try. hopefully i get a good one today!

Joan-
I am sorry you had a difficult time with the recipe. I hope you had a good experience the second time around. Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Jamie

I make this same recipe except I stir in 1/2 to 3/4 cup of walnuts or pecans. either one is great and its whatever you have on hand. also most recipes i’ve seen says to sprinkle the pecans onto the batter after you have spread the batter in the pan but I use to do it that way but I like to add the crushed nuts into the batter after the batter is ready for the pan. just pour the nuts into the batter and gently stir it with a spoon till mixed evenly then spread onto pan.